Class Times

Tuesday, 8:00 am - 10:50 am, and Thursday, 8:00 am - 10:50 am at PAÍS, Lab 1417.

Lecture/Group discussion hour, Tuesdays 10:00 am - 10:50 am at PAÍS, Lab 1405.

Experimental Modules

Choose 4 experiments from the 5 below:

• • Muon Decay

• • Wavemeter

• • Single Photons Diffraction
    - Photon Number Calculation

• • Laser Velocimetry

• • Saturated Absorption Spectroscopy
    - Rubidium 85
    - Rubidium 87

Class Participation

Lab Notebooks

Students are expected to bring a laptop to each class. At the beginning of every experiment, each group will begin a Google Doc to serve as the lab notebook for that experiment, and share it with drakete@unm.edu.

The lab notebook should be detailed, clear, complete, and updated every class. You will be graded on the completeness and clarity of your notes--using your lab notebook, a third party should be able to reproduce your work. Please follow the format presented in the slides from August 19. Including photos and screenshots is highly encouraged.

Your lab notebooks will count towards your class participation grade.

Manuscripts/Lab Reports

Each student is responsible for producing a separate manuscript no later than at the beginning of class one week after the module finishes. The writeup should follow the format of a formal article that you would see in a peer-reviewed physics journal.

Important material to help you prepare your manuscript:

Here is a description of the sections of a paper from Junior Lab, and this rubric/checklist explains in more detail the expectations for each section. Here are the slides presented in class on lab reports. Here are the slides presented in class on uncertainty and error analysis. Here are more slides on handling uncertainty in fitting: slides. These correspond to the assignment with data fitting and fit evaluation through MATLAB. Finally, here is the LaTeX template for preparing a PRL-style manuscript. You can unzip and upload these files directly to www.overleaf.com.

Oral/white board Presentation

Students will give a 20-minute lesson on a class-relevant topic or technique. Students will also prepare an interactive assignment for the class based on the material. Topics and date of presentation will be assigned by instructor during the second half of the semester.

Purpose:

• Strengthen your understanding of an important laboratory concept
• Strengthen your communication and presentation skills
• Think about how to present laboratory techniques/science to a broad audience

Grading

The contribution to the final grade is as follows:

1. Class Participation (Attendance and Lab Notebooks): 15%
2. Lab Reports: 60% (15% each)
3. Homework/Classwork associated with lectures: 10%
4. Presentation: 15%

Experiment Module Dates

Due Dates

University Policies:

Accommodations: UNM is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for students with documented disabilities. As your instructor, it is my objective to facilitate an inclusive classroom setting, in which students have full access and opportunity to participate. To engage in a confidential conversation about the process for requesting reasonable accommodations for this class and/or program, please contact Accessibility Resource Center at arcsrvs@unm.edu or 505-277-3506.

UAP 2720 and 2740. Our classroom and university should foster mutual respect, kindness, and support. If you have concerns about discrimination, harassment, or violence, please seek support and report incidents. Find confidential services at LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center, the Women’s Resource Center, and the LGBTQ Resource Center. UNM prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex (including gender, sex stereotyping, gender expression, and gender identity). All instructors are “responsible employees” who must  communicate reports  of sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual violence to Compliance, Ethics and Equal Opportunity. For more information, please see UAP 2720 and UAP 2740.

Academic honesty and AI use

Responsible Learning and Academic Honesty: Cheating and plagiarism (academic dishonesty) are often driven by lack of time, desperation, or lack of knowledge about how to identify a source. Communicate with me and ask for help rather than risking your academic career by committing academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty involves claiming that work created by another source is your own original work. It is a Student Code of Conduct violation that can lead to a disciplinary procedure. When you use a resource in work submitted for this class, document how you used it and distinguish clearly between your original work and the material taken from the resource.